Friday, November 22, 2013

The Spear of the Nasion

“The Spear of the Nasion”

Michael Lujan Bevacqua

Marianas Variety

11/20/13

When I first began attending the University of Guam as an
undergraduate, I had been off island for several years and so in a way, I was
remembering and re-discovering Guam. When I had left Guam in middle school, I
had never heard of Nasion Chamoru, but when I returned it was something that
everyone seemed to have opinions about, mostly negative.

Byt this point, the first Maga’lahi of Nasion Chamoru, Angel
Santos had already successfully transitioned from activist to politician and
was running for governor under the Hita banner. The height of Nasion Chamoru’s
notoriety, when they were camping in front of Adelup and blocking access to disputed
properties and getting arrested had passed several years before. Despite these
changes in the group, there was still plenty of hate and vitriol left in how
people talked about them.

That first year I was at UOG, from parties, to the media, to
classes, I heard Nasion Chamoru referred to as everything from Communists,
radicals, taimamahlao, mental patients, racists and of course anti-American.
These labels came from both Chamorros and non-Chamorros. Many people seemed to
equate them with all that was wrong with the island, that they were tearing
things apart and spreading hate.

No matter how much I spoke to people or learned about them I
could not make sense of the level of hatred for Nasion Chamoru and their actual
activities. Given the level of chinatli’e’ that people espoused, you might
think that Nasion Chamoru was a group of puppy torturers and kitten killers.

Nasion Chamoru grew out of a collection of Chamorros that
were dissatisfied with the status quo of the island. Some were mad at the way
Americanization was affecting Chamorro language and culture. Some were mad at
how their family’s lands were taken after World War II. Some were veterans
angry at how they had been treated during their service. Most were committed to
Guam being an independent country. They all saw that the Chamorro people
weren’t a minority, in the way that most Chamorros saw themselves, but rather a
colonized people, a native nation with thousands of years of history behind it.

The actions of Nasion Chamoru were radical only in a local
context, but not in a global context. Their activities ranged from
consciousness raising, community organizing and civil disobedience. They created
pamphlets, held demonstrations, organized teach in, but were more infamous for
their protests, their occupying Chamorro lands, and their two sit ins that they
held in front of Adelup. They were called anti-American but in truth sought to
emulate America in a more ethical sense than the facile patriotism so many feel
today. When Nasion Chamoru was first formed on July 21, 1991 their declarations
were partially modeled after the founding documents of the United States.
Nasion Chamoru was critical of American colonialism, but not necessarily
critical of the ideals of democracy, freedom and independence that it is
supposed to represent.

The community responded in very viscerally negative ways to
Nasion Chamoru because of the way the group was forcing the island to confront
issues that they would rather not deal with. Nasion Chamoru’s message in the early
1990s was more blunt than any other group previously in terms of talking about
Chamorro rights, land issues, militarization and decolonization.

Ed Benavente, a founding member of Nasion Chamoru once told
me a story of the village meetings that Nasion Chamoru would have in their
early days. In order to try and make things such as colonization and oppression
easier for people to understand they would try to break things down. Angel
Santos he said would sometimes use an old Rolaids commercial in order to make
his point:

“Si Anghet
fumaisen, “Kao en hasso nai manestaba famagu’on hit ya ta egga’ i telebishon ya
guaha ayu commercial put Rolaids?” Pues todu ma sangan, hunggan, hunggan in
hasso. Well Anghet would ask i manmatto,
“How do you spell relief?” Ya todu ma oppe,
“R-O-L-A-I-D-S.” And then we’d tell them, no, you spell relief, R-E-L-I-E-F.
This is how we have been brainwashed by America, and why we don’t see things
the way they are, even if they are right in front of us.”

These meetings would sometimes have a handful of people,
sometimes have full rooms. According to Benavente, sometimes the only people
who would show up would do so just to yell at members of Nasion Chamoru about
how they were being disatento and tairespetu.

Although the path of activism, resistance and critique that
Nasion Chamoru took was difficult at times, it has ultimately paid off. They
helped change this island and the consciousness of the community (both Chamorro
and non-Chamorro) in very profound ways. Movements that were started in the
1970s over Sella Bay, Self-Determination and Brown Power, they evolved and
found grass roots and pubic expression through the acts of Nasion Chamoru.

Today, the Chamorro Studies program is proud to present our
final speaker for the Chamorro Experience gi Fino’ Chamorro lecture series, Ed
Leon Guerrero Benavente, currently a Chamoru teacher at JFK and a former Maga’lahi
of Nasion Chamoru. He will discuss topics ranging from Chamorro activism, land
rights and decolonization all in the Chamorro language. His talk will begin at
5:30 and take place in the CLASS Lecture Hall at UOG. This event is free and open to the public.

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This blog is dedicated to Chamorro issues, the use and revitalization of the Chamoru language and the decolonization of Guam. This blog also aims to inform people around the world about the history, culture and language and struggles of the Chamorro people, who are the indigenous islanders of Guam, Saipan, Tinian, Luta and Pagan in the Mariana Islands. Pues Haggannaihon ha', ya taitai na'ya, ya Si Yu'us Ma'ase para i finatto-mu.

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The Revolution Will Not Be Haolified

THE REVOLUTION WILL NOT BE HAOLIFIEDTinige’ as Guahu - 2003 (updated 2008)

You will not be able to ignore it che’lu * This time you will not be able to blame it all on Anghet * You will not be able to change channels * And watch Fear Factor, Rev TV of Salamat Po Guam because * The Revolution will not be televised

The revolution will not be televised, nor will it be advertised * It will not be sponsored by the Good Guys at Moylan’s or the better guys at AK. * It will not be something easily explained by radio callers * Whether they be Positively Local, Definitively Settler, or Surprisingly Coconut * It will not be cornered by the Calvos and explained by Sabrina Salas * Matanane * After the story about the incoming B-52’s or 1000’s of Marines careening towards to Guam, and how we * should be economically energized and not terrorized. * Jon Anderson will have no TT anecdotes about it * and Chris Barnett won’t malafunkshun it because the revolution will not be televised

The revolution will not be televised or editorialized * It will not be something canabilized with two inches here two inches there * Dubious headlines everywhere * Lee Weber will not edit it * Joe Murphy will not put it in his pipe and smoke it * Nor dream about it, or tell others the wonders and blunders of it. * There will be no letters to the editor quoting scriptures or denying its constitutionality * And there will be no American flag inserts saying these three colors just don’t run * As the revolution will not be editorialized

The revolution will not be televised or politicized * It will not play the same old gayu games * And promise you that same old talonan things. * The revolution will not wave at you as you drive by on Marine Drive * And seduce you with its hardworking eyes. * It will not be territorial or popular, and not encourage you with maolek blue. * The revolution will not put marang salaman po after its speeches to get more Filipino votes in the next election because the revolution will not be politicized

The revolution will not be televised, not be theorized * It will not be something GCC or UOG friendly. * There will be no books at Bestseller offering to help you lose something in 90 days * Or Rachel Ray helping you cook the revolution of your way. * Ron McNinch will not survey it * and will not poll people about their revolution of choice. * There will be no WASC review report demanding accountability demanding autonomy * And no beachcombing carpetbaggers will proclaim their own terminal authority * Over the histories, the laws, the thinking of those for whom they see nothing but corrupt and corrupting inferiority * The revolution will not be colonized

The revolution will not be televised, not be supersized. * The revolution will not be something you can buy at Ross, or get at blue light cost * It is not just red rice, kelaguan uhang, or popcorn with Tobacco sauce. * It doesn’t come with Coke and it doesn’t fit on a fiesta plate. * The revolution will not make you gof sinexy, cure your jafjaf, or make fragrant your fa’fa’ * The revolution will not force you to be where America’s empire begins * Or where Japan’s golf courses and Gerry Yingling’s credit card debt ends. * You won’t need a credit card, or be charged for the tin foil to cover your balutan * As the revolution will not be economized

The revolution will not be televised, blownback or militarized * There will be no more physical ordnance buried in people’s lands * And no more patrionizing propaganda buried in people’s minds * The revolution will not get you cheaper cases of chicken or increased commissary privileges. * It will not make freedomless flags feel more comfortable in your hands * Or make uniforms fit more snugly around your mind. * The revolution will not deny racism or exploitation * And not create histories about landfalls of destiny * But instead publicize the racism and evils of American hegemony. * The revolution will not be subsidized by construction contracts or the race of Senator Inouye or Congressman Burton * It will not be laid waste to by daisy cut budgets or Medicare spending limits * Instead it will be sustained by deep memories that refuse to die * The revolution will not be televised.

The revolution will not be televised and will not polarize based on blood or color * It will not make your skin lighter * It will not make your skin darker * It will not test your blood the way Hitler or Uncle Sam would of done * It will not hate some and love others based on their time of naturalization * Or incept date of their compacts of free association. * But the revolution will help some find comfort, find strength, find power * In their connections to the land and to each other * Allow some to discover the sovereignty that can be found in solidarity * The revolution will take and remake this consciousness that doesn’t need to be televised * But does need to be revolutionized * The revolution will not be haolified * The revolution will not be haolified